gerard butler bites back in dogfight!

London, (ANI): Scottish actor gerard butler has been accused by a woman as having lashed out at her after a vicious fight between their dogs, but his rep has painted a different picture of the whole situation. The incident had taken place as Butler, 39, took his unleashed pet dog Lolita for a walk, when she bumped nose with Maria Vareckas' greyhound in New York on August 24, sending both into an attack mode.

Vareckas accused the actor of "verbal abuse", and insisted that he flew into a rage and slammed her dog's head against a nearby fence. "(He was) shouting, 'That dog should be put down!' I said, 'Your dog should be put on a leash'," the Daily Express quoted her as telling the New York Post. "He kept on going and going, ranting and raving... He was being verbally abusive. (He) walks back, ranting and raving still and pointing, saying, 'You know what? You know what? This dog should be put down!'

"And he smacked the dog in the head. The dog's head went into the fence. I was shaking. The dog yelped. I said, 'Keep your hands off my dog! Why did you hit my dog?' He didn't say a word," he said. But Butler denied the allegations, and insisted that he spent four hours at a Manhattan animal hospital while vets tended to Lolita's wounds. "What happened was, Gerry was walking his dog, Lolita, who is this little, small pug, a teeny thing. You can hold her in one arm, she's that small," a spokesperson for the actor said.

"Then, suddenly, this greyhound, this huge, menacing dog, bites Lolita. She (Maria Varecka) and Gerry then have words... the dog again goes over to Lolita and takes another bite. "They (the greyhound's owners) don't have it trained. They don't know what they're doing with their dog. People are so mean. They're just trying to milk this," the rep added. According to New York Police Department officials, no citations were issued in the incident and a complaint has not been filed against the actor.